Podcasting Roils NPR Fund Raising

PODCASTING ROILS NPR FUND RAISING
[SOURCE: Wired, AUTHOR: Steve Friess]
Podcasting is expanding NPR's overall audience and boosting some shows previously unavailable in many markets. While most NPR programming has been streamed online for several years, the portable, time-shifted, on-demand nature of podcasting affords a new level of convenience and access. Yet, at the same time, it can turn ears away from local stations -- possibly for good -- which could be a problem for affiliates that rely heavily upon member donations to pay the dues to air some of the same programming listeners can now get free as MP3s. "Unfortunately, in a typical market only 8 percent of the audience become members of their station, so if you erode that even to 7 percent or 6 percent because they're not getting the shows through the terrestrial station, that's not a good business model," says Paul Marszalek, a radio industry expert who consults with dozens of public and private radio stations. "There is not a single person on the local affiliate level who has not expressed some level of trepidation."
http://wired.com/news/culture/media/0,70583-0.html?tw=wn_index_1